July 30, 2009

Yes, I’m way overdue to write this. I actually started but never finished a June 15th article entitled Birthdays, Bikinis, Buchwald and the 109th Bead. I don’t remember how bikinis were germane, but I do remember that I was going to lament another birthday, and then say thank-you to syndicated columnist Art Buchwald, whose satirical articles I grew up on. So consider yourself fortunate that you don’t have to listen to me whine about getting older … and as for thanking Mr. Buchwald … “thanks Art for a lifetime of thought provoking satire.” (The 109th bead is the “give thanks” bead on the string used by millions in meditation and prayer)

So now to the subject at hand; if you are not connected on Linked-In or some other social network, you are missing a HUGE opportunity. Recently I experienced that power in trying to connect with someone internally at a large local company. For the sake of preserving privacy, let’s call her “Margie” at a company called “Colossal.” I did not know anyone within Colossal and I sue didn’t know Margie. For business reasons, I wanted to connect with someone inside the company immediately. Here comes Linked-In. A search of Linked-In for Colossal produced several names, including Margie’s. Low and behold it just so happens that Margie was acquainted with two people in my grad school class at UCI.

I made emailed both my classmates and asked if they felt comfortable introducing me to Margie. I learned out that one of my classmates, Angie Swartz (www.linkedin.com/in/aaswartz) is good friends with Margie. By mid afternoon both classmates had contacted Margie. Well that’s all it took. By the end of the day I had a 30 minute conversation with Margie and was able to learn exactly what I wanted to know about Colossal. I now have a friend there at Colossal.

As it also turns out, my classmate Angie is somewhat of an expert on the topic of social networking. If you take a look at her profile through the link provided above, or go directly to her company website at www.squaremartinimedia.com you’ll see that she and a colleague work with business clients to establish a web presence and take advantage of the power of social media.

As we humans in business work hard to connect and sometimes struggle to find ways to gain access to a particular business prospect, it’s refreshing and, for me a relief, to discover the power residing within these relatively new tools as avenues to connection. And since we’ve already explained the reference to the 109th bead, “thanks Angie,” “thanks Margie,” and “thank you Linked In.”

Mike Stockwell writes this blog for his clients, friends and frankly, for his own entertainment. Mike is the founder of The Pacific Group – Business Advisory Services and works with owners and executives small and mid-size businesses in California and Hawaii, helping them to bring balance back to their lives and take their business to the next level. Find out more about Mike and his business at: www.TPG-BAS.com and contact him at Mike@TPG-BAS.com

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